France: EC trying to stop offering non packed bread in restaurants and bakeries. Rem: not needed anyway, since food will have to be in doggy bags when served. Latest rumour: Froglegs have to come from Romania, since they have to be frozen at least once. On the drinking front: Pas des pots ou pichets for hygienic reasons. (I mean seriously - re-use of bottles???)
Great article, thanks for that! Its also a customer issue, I am happy to pay more for good and regional food.
I dont think thats what Jacquie objects to Bernhard....its paying for mineral water and being given tap water in disguise...
Im sure we all agree with you Bernhard....I think the asides about uncorked wine or untopped water are just other irritations in a restaurant. My OH and I are always impressed if we arrive at a restaurant and water, bread, nibbles are put on the table as an essential and free.....in fact I go so far as not bothering to go back to a place if they dont. I want 'rustic' style bread...not rolls out of 4 pack in Carrefour. In fact this sort of links in with an article I read this week about meals in French restaurants....apparently the huge majority of places buy frozen meals now, the reason being its too expensive and onerous to employ kitchen staff these days in France: the suggestion is that French cuisine is going to lose its kudos, figures around 10% that actually prepare fresh food have been thrown around...but as that was in the Telegraph...I will instead add a different link!
Maybe I led the discussion in a wrong direction: I love open regional products. I love wine out of the pot. I find it nice to have bread in a little basket and oil with it. I find it polite to serve water for free (not so in Austria). I like the unpacked little aperitives. AND I don't want that local habits are directed by some mad (Guardian) bureaucrats in Brussels.
Its not a suspicion, it is tap water and you can drink it here in France.
We have had the same with wine...comes along with the cork out...now I ask you....how likely is that to be what is says on the label?
Bernard,
I'd have refused the water. If I'm paying for bottled water, then I want to see it opened in front of me, otherwise I'd suspect tap water...
Ha, went to a restaurant today and they put an open bottle of water on my table! Criminals!
Love it!
Wonderful Krister...and absolutly true!
What's the difference between a standard joke and an EU joke ?
The EU joke is called directive.
Exactly.....
Is it the EU or UK? Today the FTSE index slumped 143 points yesterday to 6696, wiping £36bn off the value of Britain's top companies and the € £ exchange rate has put sterling on the defensive. Strange world in which to bother about olive oil at all.
It all seems a bit Basil Fawlty "Don't mention the war" to me...
I think that there will always be jobsworths...and those that love making the job they have appear very important...the civil service is full of them....here is another example...quite clever in its way, takes the eyes and brains off the important issues...like the fact Europe appears to be going down the pan!
With all the other serious problems, they focus on this? Don't they think that the economy is a bigger issue?
Don't believe it. I was born in the 40s and have seen it always - just different versions. I believe there are obsessive bureaucrats everywhere who need to create new rules... Nero had them in Rome, this is just the continuation.
more nutty ruling and usual crapola from Europe....makes you wish you were born and brought up in the 50s and 60s when there was still some sanity in the world...just think...before 'elf and saftee' was ever thought of....
Olive oil etc? It's to ensure that someone will be able to make a fortune selling prepackaged portions of olive oil to the restaurants, forcing the poor consumer to pay more for say 50ml than for an entire litre of better-quality olive oil in the supermarket. And if someone here does decide to do this, please could I have a cut of the profits for giving him/her the idea?
Contamination? I could cynically take this further... Some restaurants insist on serving soft drinks with straws to prevent us from drinking directly from the glass. This avoids contamination of the glass by the user and therefore means a quick rinse and the glass is back on the serving table. The whole reason the French wipe their plates with bread is to cut down on restaurant washing up!